In the kitchen, at the fire ring, on the fields, ain't we got fun...

What a weekend. Mindy, who taught the belly dancing funshop at the unschooling conference (I posted about that here), came to visit us with her fabulous family this weekend. There was so much activity and laughter, and a seriously righteous amount of talking. Nicolas won't be asked to engage in conversation with me for a long time. I am feeling wonderfully conversation-satiated. The kids were all wishing that we were neighbors. It would be great. At least we live in the same state.

Lots of time was spent together cooking.
Sophie and Gillen made pancakes together this morning and then chocolate cake this afternoon. Alex made a soup with things he gathered at the farm yesterday. It was delicious. Turns out that jalapeños, cumin, bok choi, kale, cabbage, stock, tomatoes, potatoes, turnips and a bay leaf are an amazing combination. Nicolas and John, who came with his own head-lamp (and lots of good, British humor), grilled burgers made with local meat. And Max got inspired to make pickles out of our cucumbers. I found a recipe for him that only took an hour. I'll be using that one again. It was really good.

Gillen and Sophie following the directions to "hand mix" the cake batter. : )


The kids made a fire ring last night for s'mores and then played flashlight tag for hours.


We collected quartz crystals from the back fields at the farm yesterday, checked out the beaver pond there and played baseball today at a local field. The "Old Geezers" (we adults) couldn't quite beat our offspring, the "Flaming Birds". But we held our own.


Treasure hunting, under a crystal blue sky:




May we have many more weekends with these new friends.